


Feels like magic~

by mkhhhx



Series: Monsta X Bingo W2018 [4]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Castles, Fantasy, Fluff, Hoseok is mentioned once, Hyunwoo and Changkyun are the princes, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Magic, Minhyuk a wizard, Monsta X Bingo, Pining, Wizards, and Jooheon his apprentice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 03:05:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13918053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mkhhhx/pseuds/mkhhhx
Summary: Because obviously, a love potion will work way better than casual flirting.





	Feels like magic~

**Author's Note:**

> For the witches/wizards square of the Winter Monsta X Bingo!

It all started with Minhyuk’s new apprentice, some months ago. Hyungwon is at the great hall with Changkyun and Hyunwoo playing board games when a guard announces that someone has requested a hearing. He escorts the two princes to another room, where they wait for their visitor.

Hyungwon remembers the new arrival well. A boy steps into the room and deeply bows, taking his hat off in one smooth motion.

“Your majesty” he starts, looking at Hyunwoo, the crown prince “I traveled for thirty six days and nights to present myself to you.” He keeps his head down, a small leather bag with his belongings next to his legs.

“Please take a seat” Hyunwoo offers “and tell us what brings you here.”

The boy’s name is Jooheon. He comes from a prestigious family living at the outskirts of Asgaror, a neighbor kingdom with which they are in friendly terms, so he’s no threat.  His father was a wizard and Jooheon himself has been learning the art of potions and spells since he was very young. His old father eventually passed away and Jooheon, in search of a mentor, ended up at their palace, where the infamous Minhyuk also lives.

“We are happy to have you here Jooheon, I hope that if you decide to stay you’ll work hard to bring prosperity to our land that welcomes you as if you are one of us. Minhyuk resides at the old part of the castle, you can easily find him. Hyungwon, here, my brother’s royal counselor shall guide you.” Hyunwoo says, his calm endeavor and way of speaking making him an exact copy of his father. Also Hyungwon is nothing sort of a counselor to Changkyun, the king just insisted they find a title for him. They settled for this one, since his father was the king’s counselor for many years too.

After the hearing is over and the princes go back to the great hall, Hyungwon guides Jooheon to Minhyuk’s living quarters, secluded and kind of gloomy, vines climbing up the old walls and portraits of past kings and queens watching from every corner. Hyungwon never understood why Minhyuk picked this place, but there certainly is some kind of magic in the air. He left Jooheon knocking on the door and when he was leaving he heard Minhyuk’s loud voice asking who’s visiting. And that’s how Jooheon became an apprentice, or alternatively, Minhyuk developed a crush the size of the whole known and unknown solar system altogether.

 

 

The first few weeks with Jooheon were relatively easy for Minhyuk. He enjoyed the company and had a lot to teach him. He never had an apprentice before but he realized that two more helping hands were a blessing. Jooheon first learnt about the magic garden, behind Minhyuk’s room. A vast green space where most of the usual ingredients they needed for the potions grew. Minhyuk took pride in all of his fourteen different kinds of mushrooms.

At the far end of the garden there is a pond, with crystal clear water coming straight from the mountains. Swans and ducks nest there, but most importantly frogs and all kinds of insects. Jooheon fell into the water a lot of times before he developed a solid method of catching them, while Minhyuk stood there, amused.

Next part of Jooheon’s basic training was book reading. Minhyuk had two huge bookcases, one for potions and the other for spells. There were also some books about curses and ways to break them, but Minhyuk was a good wizard, he wouldn’t go that far as to use them, normally. Jooheon was a quick learner, picking up all the practical things and memorizing ingredients.

Minhyuk decided to make a room for him next to his own and was surprised by how easily the younger one agreed. Most people were scared to set foot at this part of the castle, after it was burned years ago in an attack, when they were still in war with the kingdom of Iovol. Minhyuk loved the space and quiet atmosphere he had there.

Jooheon had to fit into his daily routine too. Minhyuk woke up every morning when the sun rose and after a humble breakfast consisting of rice and duck eggs he spend some time grooming his messenger owls just before they fell asleep. Then, until lunch, he studied and wrote down and maybe experimented with new recipes and spells.

One of the servants brought him lunch from the kitchens and after a short nap he took care of potion making every afternoon. Sometimes Hyungwon visited and others he made couching syrups in bulk, when winter was approaching. He spent the nights writing books and studying the stars, unless there was a ball at the great hall. Then, he wore his tailored clothes, a present from the king and went to dance, he loved balls. Every night, before sleeping he went around the corridors in his loose robe and lighted up the torches on the walls.

Jooheon, after coming into his life, mostly studied quietly next to him and helped carry the ingredients. And also the owls loved him. He soon learned to find the constellations on the night sky and liked competing with Minhyuk about who could find the most. When summer started approaching and the weather was warmer, Jooheon built beehives in their garden and started producing his own honey, as sweet as him.

 

 

It was a fine morning, when Minhyuk had for the first time the faint idea that he has caught, as the youngsters call it, feelings. He and Jooheon were both at the garden, a table set next to the pond and Jooheon was trying to catch dragonflies for a medical potion they were trying to make from scratch. Minhyuk was watching him, setting up the pots and jars, making sure they had everything else they would need. When he turned again to see if Jooheon had made any progress, a swan opened its wings and splashed Jooheon. The boy started laughing, black hair damp on his forehead and dimples deep on his cheeks and Minhyuk couldn’t, to save his life, look away.

“Look, I caught it!” Jooheon came back to him, holding a green dragonfly, but Minhyuk only had eyes for that smile.

He decided to take drastic measures right away. And with drastic measures he meant making sure his feelings would be returned.

“Minhyuk, this seems like a bad idea.” Hyungwon says, looking at the cup of tea his friend prepared for him. He’s not sure of the ingredients used and he certainly doesn’t want to turn into a frog or anything. He knows better than to trust Minhyuk so easily.

“Why do you say that?” Minhyuk stirs the red steamy liquid in the pot in front of him. He takes a jar from the table next to him, opens the lid and smells the dried up plant stored inside scrunching his nose in disgust. He throws some into the pot anyway and the steam’s color turns a light purple.

“Are you even following the recipe?” Hyungwon places the cup on the short table and gets up to inspect the potion. The recipe book is open to a page about curing headaches, which is completely irrelevant to what Minhyuk is trying to do. Even though he, himself is a headache.  

“All the recipe needs is love” Minhyuk replies, kissing his large wooden ladle.

“I doubt that” Hyungwon takes the heavy book in his hands, trying to find the correct page. Love potions, here it is. “The final color should be pink, you’re close at least. I hope you don’t poison him.”

Minhyuk opens more jars, throws a couple frog legs in the mix and somehow the color is the correct one.

“That must be it!” He happily exclaims, taking the pot off of the fire. “I need to keep it overnight in a cool place now” Minhyuk takes one clean glass bottle and fills it with the disgusting smelling substance.

“But the recipe doesn’t say anything like this….” Hyungwon tries.

“I know better than the recipe.” Minhyuk labels the bottle and places it in one of his countless cabinets.

“Why do you even need a love potion?” Hyungwon asks.

“Why not? The young prince is growing up fast, he might need it.” Minhyuk shrugs.

“But Changkyun is…”

“We need to make sure his feelings are returned.” Minhyuk continues sternly and Hyungwon didn’t remember him to be so caring about the young prince’s love life. But Minhyuk is strange like that some times.

The potion smells awful, even from inside the jar. Shouldn’t love potions smell…nicer? Now Hyungwon would never question Minhyuk’s abilities. He is undeniably one of the best wizards of their kingdom and has proven his abilities many times through the years, curing the royal family and their soldiers from deathly illnesses, helping the crops grow in dry periods and assisting every time a little magic was needed. It’s just, that lately something is off and Minhyuk isn’t half as concentrated as he used to be.

“Jooheon” Minhyuk steps next to his apprentice’s desk and gently pokes his shoulder “you’ve been working on this for quite some time now” Minhyuk takes his magic hourglass out of his pocket to confirm it “for five hours”.  
Jooheon nods and gets up from his chair, to stretch his limbs.

“I think I can make it work” Minhyuk looks at the page, an instant cure for chickenpox.

“Of course you will, tell me if you need help or to take some of my rare ingredients, you know it’s difficult to find some of them again.”

“Of course” Jooheon sits back down and Minhyuk, subtly places the glass filled with the pink liquid on his desk.

“It’s a potion that will give you strength” Minhyuk smiles and Jooheon does an “oh” sound.

“Did you just make it?”

“Yesterday. It will help you go through all your work in shorter time and you won’t feel as tired at the end.”

“Then we should drink half each! You work too much lately.” Oh, pure Jooheon, always so caring.

Jooheon drinks half and looks at Minhyuk expectantly. The wizard doesn’t have much choice than to drink too, so he downs the rest. It should not have any effect to him anyway. Now, Minhyuk should wait for Jooheon to declare his undying love to him. He hasn’t checked how long it takes for love potions to kick in.

The next morning, they both wake up with snowy white hair. Try one, unsuccessful.

 

 

“I kind of like it” Jooheon says, ruffling his fluffy, very white hair “but how did you manage to mess up the potion so much?”  
Minhyuk gulps and doesn’t answer, in the middle of watering his mushrooms.

“We’ll need more bat wing bones soon, I use them in the sun protection creams.” He says instead.

“We could go to the mountains for some days and gather all the ingredients we will need at once.”

“Yeah..” Minhyuk agrees, reluctant to try the idea of practically going on holidays with Jooheon.

After some days. Jooheon has calculated the movements of the moon and took into account the bats’ mating cycles and in conclusion has found the perfect date to go on their date…their investigative trip, Minhyuk corrects himself. They are going to find ingredients. And come back. And get into work again.

 

“Why don’t you try to flirt with him? Like a normal person” Hyungwon asks, once again on Minhyuk’s couch with a cup tea. It smells like actual tea this time, so Hyungwon braces himself and tries. It’s chamomile.

“I’m not good at flirting Hyungwon!” Minhyuk says, once again above a boiling pot.

“You have never tried! With another human!” Hyungwon gets up and drinks the rest of his chamomile. “Just try, since you’ll spend two whole days exclusively with him” he takes a good look at the new love potion Minhyuk is making “and make sure to not turn his hair green or something this time.” He leaves dramatically.

Minhyuk is positive this potion will do the work. It has a lovely sweet scent and a velvety smooth texture. He stores it in a leather flask and makes sure it won’t open and spill. The night before he and Jooheon are about to leave, Minhyuk places the flask between his sets of empty jars they want to fill and goes to sleep. He can’t wait to give it to Jooheon.

 

 

“Minhyuk?” Jooheon knocks on his door and opens slowly. He’s still in his sleep clothes, but Minhyuk is still under the covers.

“Yes?” He opens his eyes and jolts up “are we late?”

“No, no, in fact, it’s still very early. I’m waking you up so we can get breakfast before we go.” Jooheon is so precious and Minhyuk feels energized as ever picking his traveling clothes and heavy boots, everything packed before their breakfast.

Jooheon drinks tea with milk and Minhyuk is finishing his eggs when a servant informs them that the horses are saddled and ready to go whenever they want. Minhyuk tries to make small talk, checking that Jooheon hasn’t forgotten anything, but it seems that the younger man has traveled a lot already and is very efficient at packing.

The horses are both females, tame and sweet. Minhyuk has filled a pocket full of sugar cubes, just for them. He takes the grey and Jooheon the brown one and they set off, vases and jars jiggling, placed in bags hanging from each side of the horses.

Minhyuk, a few steps behind can also see something else jiggling, and he probably shouldn’t, but he can’t take his eyes off of Jooheon’s butt, swaying with the mare’s every step. He never thought of himself as being bad at horse riding, but he’s really struggling not to fall at the moment. Jooheon wouldn’t like him if he fell on the mud and got stomped by his horse, so that keeps him going.

They enter the forest and the muddy paths start getting replaced by flora covering the flooring. It’s difficult to maneuver the horses between the trees, so they slow down and ride side to side talking. Jooheon found a book on Minhyuk’s bookshelves about spells which can grow flowers. He tells Minhyuk that when spring comes and it’s hotter he wants to plant all types of flowers and new trees for his bees in their garden, maybe bring some new animals too, they have space. Minhyuk doesn’t quite gasp all the flower names, but he can’t say no to that dimpled smile, even if they were human-eating ones.

“I think we can camp here and start looking for ingredients before it gets dark” Jooheon says as they arrive at a wide clearing. There’s enough space for their tent, a small fire and sturdy low branches to tie the horses.

“Do you think there’s water around here?” Minhyuk asks and takes a map from his pocket. There must be a small river nearby, the sound of the water drowned by the singing of the birds and the breeze shaking the leaves above them.

“It’s a good place to camp, so let’s find some water for all of us” Jooheon heads to the direction of the river after Minhyuk shows him the map, and soon enough they arrive at a steam of crystal clear and freezing water. It must be melted snow coming from the mountains.

Both men jump down from their horses and let them drink and munch on the grass around them. Minhyuk crouches to drink some water from his palms and wash his face, when his reflection on the river draws his attention. Jooheon is standing above and behind him and smiling. The water carries that smile away again and again, but when Minhyuk gets up and faces him, Jooheon’s expression hasn’t changed at all.

“You look so happy” Minhyun loves it.

“I love being in nature.” Minhyuk nods, but he can’t appreciate nature at all, not when Jooheon has all of his attention.

In the spare hours they have before the dawn and after leaving the horses behind and taking a bag each they manage to find more than a few useful things. Bird eggs and rare insects, flowers one could never find at the kingdom’s biggest market. They are both bouncing with energy, Minhyuk filling flask after flask with amber. It’s useful indeed, but he also thinks of all the jewelry he can make with it and then gift them to Jooheon. He’d look even more gorgeous with a golden bracelet or necklace.

Jooheon, being the most practical out of them, finds a hawk nest and picks some feathers. They are used only in a very small number of potions, but can come handy. Minhyuk is looking at a butterfly with blue and black wings, gorgeous. It would be useful, but Minhyuk decides to leave it be, it’s so beautiful. Jooheon notices him looking at it for full minutes.

“Were you always so soft Minhyuk?” he questions playfully.

“No, it’s a new trait of mine.”

When the night falls, Minhyuk uses a spell and some dry branches to light up a fire and roast a turkey they found into the forest. He made Jooheon clean it and it’s less meaty than it looked, but just right for two people, along with the berries they’ve gathered from nearby bushes.

The plan is to spend the next morning gathering some more ingredients and be back to the palace at late afternoon, just in time for dinner. They make together a list of what they want to look for and what they have already enough of. Apparently they needed that butterfly, but Jooheon didn’t say anything. Minhyuk hopes they find a new one, because they are really rare near the town, even in the palace’s huge gardens.

They set up the tent, one Minhyuk used only for himself the previous times he wanted to stay in the forest. Lying side by side is a little awkward at the start, both tossing and turning and trying to not touch each other, but then, somehow, Jooheon is asleep with his head on Minhyuk’s shoulder. The older wizard can’t calm his fast beating heart down, feeling like it’ll get out of his chest every time he lowers his head and is met with his apprentice’s soft features under the moonlight.

 

They wake up in a pile of limps and Jooheon for a few short moments clings on Minhyuk sleepily. Minhyuk giggles and tells him that he’ll make breakfast, which wakes Jooheon up for good. They wash themselves in the river, eat some of the bread they’ve brought from the palace and start their research.

Jooheon climbs on trees and collects fresh leaves which will make a great paste for burns, if they use them the same night. He is also the one to find one more butterfly, collects it into a glass jar before Minhyuk gets close. Their list is shortening, but they still have to find a rattlesnake and Minhyuk was also hoping for some wild variety of mushrooms. He looks at his magical clock and decides that it’s time to go, so Jooheon follows him back to their camping site.

On the way back, Jooheon stops here and there, takes flowers and plucks them behind his ears. Minhyuk would give all his wealth away to have the palace painter imprint this exact picture on canvas. He would throw away all the royalty’s portraits and put this one on the wall instead. He doesn’t know when Jooheon gets so close to him, but suddenly Minhyuk has a chrysanthemum on his hair and they are both giggling.

The laughter stops when they arrive at their camping site. The tent is ripped and some of the jars are tripped over. It’s rare for rogues to be around the area and furthermore, the two wizards don’t have anything valuable for usual people. Minhyuk sees it. A deep brown furry mass. It stares back at him, small eyes, two white long teeth out of its mouth, a wild boar.

Then Minhyuk realizes something. The flask he kept the love potion in, it’s open, some spilled on the dirt. The boar is running up to him the next moment and he’s sure he’ll die, Jooheon standing wide-eyed next to him. He falls back and waits for the inevitable, but it doesn’t come and Jooheon is shouting his name and trying to take the boar off of him.

The riding back to the palace is strange. Minhyuk knows Jooheon has questions. Minhyuk is not sure he can answer. How does he explain the fact that a wild boar started licking his face and followed him around for a whole hour before they managed to gallop away on their horses? How does he explain the love potion? He knows Jooheon noticed the lilac liquid and he knows what it is. Jooheon knows all the potions and Minhyuk is proud of his apprentice, but it probably backlashed this time.

“Minhyuk, I know I’m a mere apprentice to you…” Minhyuk swallows, doesn’t dare tell Jooheon that in his own mind Jooheon is so much more “but I know this was a love potion…and why did you kept that with you?”  
Minhyuk doesn’t say anything, just tries to make himself as small as he can on top of his horse. But Jooheon is persistent.

“Was that for me Minhyuk?” Minhyuk completely stops his horse and Jooheon does the same.

“Yes, but, but let me explain, it’s not what you think…I just” Minhyuk feels his cheeks catching fire and he gives up.

“There was no need for that” Jooheon says, pulling the reigns of his horse and moving again. Minhyuk’s mare follows.

“What…what do you mean?” Jooheon will leave the moment they get back at the palace, go back to his town, Minhyuk will never hear from him again.

“I mean” Jooheon turns to him “that there’s no need for love potions” their gazes meet and Minhyuk melts under the effect of Jooheon’s smile “’cause I like you too.”

 

 

When they arrive at the palace, Minhyuk can’t keep himself more than a meter away from Jooheon at all times when they are putting their new ingredients on the shelves. Jooheon tries to ignore him but at the end gives in and holds Minhyuk’s hand while they are discussing their potion making plans for the next days.

Their romantic atmosphere between the frog legs and bat wings hanging from the ceiling is interrupted by a servant, informing them that the princes are waiting to have late lunch with them. Jooheon leaves to his room to change, promising they’ll talk later and Minhyuk knows it won’t be about potions.

The young prince, Changkyun, gets along really well with Jooheon and the other prince, Hyunwoo loves hearing stories, so that’s why they were invited to dinner. Jooheon is giving them a vivid description of the forest when one of the royal guards rushes inside, out of breath. Minhyuk thinks his name is Hoseok. He bows to the princes and takes his armor helmet off.

 

 

“Your majesty, there is a very persistent boar outside the gates, we don’t know what to do with it.”  
Changkyun looks at his brother, trying not to laugh.

“Tomorrow’s lunch.” Hyunwoo decides firmly. Minhyuk feels a little bad about that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
